Sunday, January 31, 2010

PLANE - KREMLIN - RARE YOUTHSuper nice, meditative duo electric guitar pieces from Evan Miller and Phil Ochs. I am really digging the purity of the approach here -- no weird effects, production trickery, overdubs, extended "freak-outs," feedback, etc., just two distorted guitars carving some rough beauty out of the thin air. Restrained, disciplined stuff. If someone told me these were salvaged Popul Vuh home-recorded demos, I would probably believe them. Don't know if this is an ongoing project or one-off but I hope to hear more from these guys in the future. $6

KEITH FULLERTON WHITMAN - Hallicrafters, Inc. / 10 POKE 54272+INT(RND(1)*25),INT(RND(1)*256) : GOTO 10 - RARE YOUTHThere are not many out there like Keith Fullerton Whitman. I can't think of anyone else so faithfully and beautifully carrying on the tradition of Electronic Music, from musique concrete to Morton Subotnick and Terry Riley up through Max/MSP and computer music. After that introduction, I should say that isn't an "easy" tape, but if you're used to the deep listening required for absorbing a piece of tape or experimental music, you're really gonna dig it. Two modular synth pieces here, both with a "spliced" aesthetic -- the first uses a shortwave radio to create an ever-changing sonic palette of tonal bursts, in the second an old commodore and an iphone are used with the synthesizer. $6

COUCH POOCHIE - S/T - FEEDING TUBE RECORDSSam Gas Can of Faux Pas records, and of himself, described this tape as "zonked," and I think that's the best way of getting at the particular brand of Western Massachusetts weirdness represented here, which is to say genuine and deeply perplexing weirdness. Tape starts with a "straight" and very endearing cover of the old standard Sea of Love before swerving into psychotic vocalizations and cheap Casio grooves. Somehow very pure and also demented. A total oddity. $4